Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On December 2, 1988, Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, thus becoming the first ever female head of government of a modern Islamic country. Not only that, but she twice became Prime Minister, the first time from 1988-1990 and the second time around from 1993-1996. And to think, the United States still has never had a woman as President… Digging Deeper Bhutto was born into a political family in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1953. Her father served as Prime Minister in the 1970’s until he was ousted in a military coup in 1977.…

A Brief History On December 1, 1913, automaker and industrialist extraordinaire Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line to the world of manufacturing. This seemingly simple measure actually required careful thought and planning, with every aspect of the assembly line idealized for efficient production. This method of building cars allowed Ford to sell his product cheaply enough that it could be bought by the masses, resulting in half of all cars in the world being a Ford product by the 1920’s. Here we list 9 such monumental advancements in the world of industry, epic innovations that have made our modern…

A Brief History On November 30, 2005, John Sentamu was given the title 97th Archbishop of York, making him the first Black (of sub-Saharan African origin) Archbishop in the Church of England. Digging Deeper With this event taking place so recently, it can be clearly seen that normalization of integrating people of diverse backgrounds into British society is no less trying than seamlessly integrating people of all backgrounds in the United States, a country often referred to as “The Melding Pot” (or sometimes “Melting Pot). Modern European countries, especially ones with far flung former colonies such as Britain are by…

A Brief History On November 29, 1961, the US space agency, NASA, launched Mercury-Atlas 5, the first mission to send an American into orbit around the Earth in space. Russian Yuri Gagarin had already orbited the Earth, and 2 American astronauts had made sub-orbital space flights, but the time was right for the US to make the big step into orbital flight. Digging Deeper The specially trained “astronaut” chosen for this historic flight was Enos, a chimpanzee that had been bought by NASA from the Miami Rare Bird Farm in 1960. Enos had been subjected to over 1250 hours of…

A Brief History On November 28, 1893, the women of New Zealand became the first women in the world to vote in a national election. Of course, women had voted in local and regional elections before this date, but never in a nationwide election. Digging Deeper Women in democratic countries had long, but largely fruitlessly, campaigned for the right to vote (suffrage), especially since 1804 when the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was founded in Berlin, Germany. By the late 19th Century the Women’s Suffrage movement was growing throughout the civilized world, and with it demands for other Civil Rights and…